Aussie Readers discussion

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The essence of the book is the “pride” of Darcy and the “prejudice” of Elisabeth against him and the subsequent resolutions thereof. Darcy has an inborn pride in him that makes him, at his first introduction to the reader, unpopular at the assembly ball. “His manners gave a disgust...for he was discovered to be proud; to be above his company and above being pleased.” Elizabeth is immediately prejudiced against him.
Nevertheless, despite his pride he, against his will, falls in love with Elizabeth. And his love reaches a climax when at “Rosings” he declares his love to her.
However, by then Elizabeth is completely prejudiced against him. She believes Wickam’s story of how Darcy has mistreated and ruined him. Further, she has learnt that Darcy has been instrumental in breaking off Bingley’s love affair with her sister, Jane.
Hence, she refuses his offer and she is also angered by his way of proposing to her. He is confident that Elizabeth, being on a lower social level than he, will jump at his offer. She says: “had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner...”
Darcy is humbled by her refusal of his love and ponders over her remark, “Had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner...” He begins to change and his pride to disappear and his love for her strengthens.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s prejudice also diminishes. When she reads his letter she believes in the rascality of Wickam and realizes that Darcy is, after all, not the “bad guy” she thought he was. When she visits “Pemberly” with Mr and Mrs Gardiner, the splendour of the place dazzles her. Her encounter there with Darcy and his changed, “gentlemanlike” behavior further draws her to him: she reciprocates his love and begins to love him, all her prejudice resolved!
Then came Lydia’s elopement with Wickam and the role Darcy played in bringing about their marriage. Her gratitude to him further strengthens her regard and love for him.
The introduction of Mr Collins into the novel with his silly, odd behaviour and his preoccupation with the magnificence of “Rosings” brings some “comic relief” to the story and adds much to the popularity of the novel.
At the same time the author makes a point re the marriage of Charlotte with Mr Collins.
Charlotte is not “in love” with Mr Collins, though she marries him. She wants to settle down in life and have a good home. Despite his idiosyncrasies, Mr Collins is a respectable man with a good income. I think the point that Jane Austen wishes to make is that passionate love is not an essential prerequisite to a happy marriage and a happy family life; that “falling in love” before marriage as advocated by the Bennet sisters is not essential.

I hope there are no spoilers in that Terrence?

I read this recently. Pretty cool story. Also, you should tag this thread as relating to the book Pride and Prejudice. This allows it to show up for people viewing the book, plus we can see how people posting in the thread rated it.

Thanks Ryan :) I was going to do that (and have done) once I got back onto the PC :)

I think that the story was a neat way for Austin to poke fun at humanity and society. Her insight and social commentary are one of the things that make this a great book.

I agree Deborah. She was certainly poking fun and she was so good at seeing through the ridiculous in people. She must have been a lovely woman to know.

I think she would have been very keenly observant, that comes through strongly in most everything she wrote. The amazing thing is how she could be so observant of the flaws in people with so little judgment or condemnation!

If one could host a dinner party for all the historical figures you every wanted to meet, she would definitely be at the table!

Especially if she brought Elizabeth and Darcy:)
Okay - I know they aren't real, but she makes them seem so:)

Deborah wrote: "I think that the story was a neat way for Austin to poke fun at humanity and society. Her insight and social commentary are one of the things that make this a great book."

Yes Deborah and Phrynne! How refreshing to look at the social commentry (and really she was wickedly sarcastic) instead to treating them as the proto-romance novel (when the genre they supposedly spawned tends to have nowhere near the complexity)

Elizabeth Bennet was extremely surprised by the engagement of Charlotte to Mr Collins. Clearly, the materialistic side of marriage was not uppermost in Elizabeth's mind.

Terrence says"I think the point that Jane Austen wishes to make is that passionate love is not an essential prerequisite to a happy marriage and a happy family life; that “falling in love” before marriage as advocated by the Bennet sisters is not essential. "

I disagree, it's more complicated than that. Charlotte Lucas is obviously not happy in her marriage but she makes the best of it by encouraging her husband to spend a lot of time in the garden. She has married a fool, so has Lydia Bennet who runs off with Wickham and seems destined to be probably more unhappy than even Charlotte. I once heard the moral of Jane Austen's novels summed up as "It is immoral to marry for money but imprudent to marry without it." The ideal marriage is Elizabeth and Darcy's because they have love and material comfort as well.

I think I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time at fifteen years of age, and every five or six years since I revisit it (a long time!). It is a gem of a novel. Austen's wit and social commentary always seem fresh. The Charlotte/Collins, Lydia/Wickham and Jane/Bingley subplots are by turns hilarious, naughty and romantic. And Lizzie and Darcy's relationship must be the archetype of the love/hate romantic narrative. The opening line 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife' and the paragraph that follows, encapsulate the entire novel in six pithy, witty, ironic lines. Brilliant!

Melinda wrote: "Terrence says"I think the point that Jane Austen wishes to make is that passionate love is not an essential prerequisite to a happy marriage and a happy family life; that “falling in love” before m..."

I think you make a great point, however I believe the essence of the novel is not about who you marry but rather it's a commentary about waiting for marriage. Lydia disgraces her family by running off with the first man she sees and it I see made abundantly clear that although she is happy now, she won't be. Charlotte did wait and from what I understand of the story she rushed into the marriage with the first man who proposed, however she is happy in what she got out of life.
Then comes Jane, who almost lost everything because she waited so long for Bingley to make a move that it is almost that Jane Austen is saying that happiness can be found in knowing when the right man/circumstance comes along and going for it. This is summed up in Elizabeth's story as she turns Collins down knowing it would not make either of them happy. She also turns down Darcy as the circumstances were not right, but once she gets over her prejudices and Darcy has grown into a better person, she understands that this is the right choice.
I don't know but that's the message I got from this.

Perhaps, marriage is not really the subject matter of Pride and Prejudice but merely the very entertaining vehicle.

I have always felt that Austin, while entertained by the mating conventions of society was actually far more interested in the 'first impressions' of the characters in her novel to people they meet than in who they do or don't marry.

Elizabeth and Jane are universally likable, and they have happy endings. That is really less interesting though, than the way Jane responds to Bingly and his sisters - with general approbation. Elizabeth likes Bingly, but is not as fascinated by him as Jane is and almost at once dislikes his sisters. Jane comes to realise her first impressions were too generous, Elizabeth is humbled to find her's were wrong...

And Austin barely even mentions the weddings, any of them. To me, it seems that the 'wedding game' (as described in Emma) is actually not something she has a lot of respect for.

Deborah wrote: "Perhaps, marriage is not really the subject matter of Pride and Prejudice but merely the very entertaining vehicle.

I have always felt that Austin, while entertained by the mating conventions of ..."

This is a really interesting point!

Elizabeth as a character (particularly at the start) seems to show some contempt at the idea of marriage. Mrs Bennet, who is at the forefront of pushing all her girls to marry, is shown to be a bit..airheaded? That's not the right word but I think you get what I mean.
Mr Bennet also, who seems to take Elizabeth's side most often, seems to harbour a bit of contempt for marriage. He on one hand, want some his girls to be taken care of, but on the other, seems to not really care if his daughters are married or not. In the event of Elizabeth and Mr Collins, he actively encourages Elizabeth to say no.
This seems to be, as far as I am aware and I certainly have not done enough research on the time period, a bit of an odd stance. In a time where girls were property and so could not inherit anything and so had to marry to make sure they could survive after their father passed, it's almost absurd that Mr Bennet would not want to marry off his daughters.
So perhaps, with this in mind, we could conclude that perhaps Jane Austen was not advocating for marriage at all. As it was earlier mentioned in this thread, Austen gives us a lot of social commentary with her writing. So perhaps, this was almost a feminist plea disguised as a romance. Look after yourself, challenge your thoughts (pride and prejudices) and remember girls should not need to marry; it's not important.

What do you think?